World Heart Day is an international campaign organized by the World Heart Federation with the aim of engaging with individuals, families, communities and governments around the world to spread awareness of the causes and prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD).
The World Heart Federation (WHF) was originally formed in 1978 and is now recognized by the World Health Organization as its leading NGO partner in CVD prevention. The WHF’s main aim is to reduce premature deaths from CVD by at least 25% by 2025.
Heart disease is very susceptible to lifestyle modifications, and simple interventions like monitoring and controlling high blood pressure, and high cholesterol levels; managing diabetes appropriately; encouraging good nutrition, and modest exercise; and stopping smoking have been shown to reduce heart disease significantly.
Professor Vipin Zamvar
Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery
The theme for this year’s World Heart Day on September 29th is ‘Share the power’. By empowering and inspiring millions of people across the globe, World Heart Day 2017 will promote making “small changes”, such as eating a healthy diet, getting more exercise, and giving up smoking, in order to make a powerful difference to heart health. While World Heart Day aims to raise awareness that CVD is the number one cause of death worldwide, this year’s campaign emphasizes the need for increased investment in strategies for CVD prevention in low and middle income countries, which account for 80% of CVD deaths.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is categorized as any disease of the heart, vascular disease of the brain, or disease of the blood vessel. The most prevalent cardiovascular diseases include coronary heart disease (e.g. heart attack) and cerebrovascular disease (e.g. stroke).¹ BMC has a number of Open Access cardiology journals that publish innovative and cutting edge research on CVD and other heart conditions.
BMC’s Cardiology Journals
A recently published article in Cardiovascular Ultrasound reviewed cardiac shock-wave therapy in the treatment of coronary artery disease. Overall, the review found that cardiac shock-wave therapy is a promising non-invasive option for patients with end-stage coronary artery disease.
The Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery consistently publishes cutting-edge research on clinical and experimental advances in cardiac and thoracic surgery, and related fields. The journal recently published a research article which investigated the effect of preoperative liver dysfunction on cardiac surgery outcomes. The article concludes that patients with liver dysfunction are at a clear disadvantage for most cardiac procedures and emphasizes the importance of careful patient selection.
The Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Professor Vipin Zamvar, summarizes his thoughts on the importance of World Heart Day:
“Even though the mortality due to heart disease has fallen by over 20% in the last 15 years, it continues to be the leading cause of death worldwide. The good news is that it attracts about 20% of all the research spending; and spectacular advances have been made regarding understanding and treating heart related diseases in the last two decades.
Heart disease is very susceptible to lifestyle modifications, and simple interventions like monitoring and controlling high blood pressure, and high cholesterol levels; managing diabetes appropriately; encouraging good nutrition, and modest exercise; and stopping smoking have been shown to reduce heart disease significantly.
On this World Heart Day, I hope we can spread this very obvious message to a big audience.”
Congenital heart disease is also a topic of interest on World Heart Day, as over one million babies are born each year with congenital heart defects worldwide.¹ The Journal of Congenital Cardiology, launched in June 2017, is a new open access journal published by BMC that publishes content on all areas of congenital cardiology.
What can you do?
World Heart Day is a fantastic opportunity to get involved in raising awareness about CVD and inspire individuals to make “small changes” now to encourage heart-healthy living across the world.
Watch a video about World Heart Day, by the World Heart Foundation here:
¹ World Heart Federation: https://www.worldheartday.org/whdcvd/
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